Police ID drivers in fatal hit-and-runs

Posted: Thursday, September 29, 2005

By Allison Floydallison.floyd@onlineathens.com

A pair of hit-and-run death investigations in Athens may be solved, after North Carolina authorities arrested a man suspected in one and a woman stepped forward Monday to admit she is responsible for the other.

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Athens-Clarke police believe a 20-year-old fugitive recently caught in North Carolina is responsible for the hit-and-run incident that killed 46-year-old Janice Dukes as she walked along Whit Davis Road in the early morning hours of Sept. 18.

And an unidentified woman told police and prosecutors Monday that she thinks she struck and killed a 19-year-old skateboarder on South Milledge Avenue on Sunday. The woman said she thought she hit a deer in the 3:30 a.m. crash, but came forward when she read about the fatal crash in the newspaper, according to police.

Oconee County sheriff's deputies expect to retrieve Charles Adam Reynolds, the man suspected in the Whit Davis Road crash, on Friday and return him to Georgia to face a firearms charge. According to the Oconee County sheriff's office, Reynolds waived extradition from North Carolina, where he was booked as a fugitive from another state. Once deputies bring him from the Mecklenburg County Jail in Charlotte, Athens-Clarke investigators could interview him as early as Friday.

But police already are sure that the Chevrolet truck Reynolds owns and had with him in North Carolina is the vehicle that struck and killed Dukes as she walked along Whit Davis Road at about 2:15 in the morning, according to an investigator.

"We are very certain that the vehicle that belongs to him is the one that did it," said Sgt. Brad Collinsworth of Athens-Clarke police's traffic division.

"We are very certain this is our guy," he said.

Investigators still must interview witnesses at an auto shop where Reynolds took the truck for repairs after the crash, according to Collinsworth.

While dozens of witnesses could help connect Reynolds to the crash, police have not interviewed anyone who actually witnessed the incident, according to the investigator.

"I'm pretty sure no one saw it," Collinsworth said.

Oconee County authorities knew Reynolds, who was charged with possession of a sawed-off shotgun more than a year ago, had fled the state, according to Oconee sheriff's Lt. David Kilpatrick, and suspect that he returned to the Athens area after a family member's death. No reported crimes are connected to the shotgun, Kilpatrick said.

In the other hit-and-run investigation, police have not charged the woman who said she struck an Athens teen as he rode a skateboard from Milledge Terrace onto South Milledge Avenue early Sunday, according to police.

A witness told police that a dark-colored minivan with a sloped front hit 19-year-old Michael Douglas, who was pronounced dead at St. Mary's Hospital.

The woman hired a private attorney and met with authorities Monday, according to police. Charges might be filed, police said.